legislation that provides for the domestic application of a treaty without incorporating the detailed contents of the treaty. 15. In practice, however, many countries adopt a hybrid of a monist and dualist approach. For example, some States give primacy to their respective constitutions thus requiring a constitutional amendment for certain treaties to become part of the domestic law, while some States require enabling legislation. Others States pursue one or the other approach depending on the nature of the subject matter covered by the treaty. 16. The Palestinian Basic Law does not provide detail on the relationship between international law and domestic law. C. Human rights as the guarantor of human dignity 17. The rationale of human rights can be summarised as the guarantee of human dignity.34 As part of that guarantee of human dignity, human rights standards are also concerned to ensure that power is exercised in an accountable manner. As such dignity, human rights and the rule of law are intimately and intrinsically linked. Power, in this context, to all intents and purposes means the State. However, there are arguments that it is not just the State that exercises power and violates human rights standards but that non-State actors, such as the actions of terrorist groups can also amount to a violation of human rights.35 18. Human rights standards seek to realise their aims of dignity and accountability in four ways:     Firstly, human rights identify certain core values which are essential to the realisation of human dignity. These range from protection from torture to private life, from the right to a fair trial to an adequate standard of living. Second, the extent to which these rights can be balanced or even derogated from, taking into account the public interest, is considered. Third if particular rights can be lawfully interfered with, the legality, necessity and proportionality of that interference is measured, taking into account protection from discrimination. Finally, where there is a reasonable assertion that an individual’s human rights are (or maybe) being violated, that individual is entitled to an effective remedy. 19. Internationally recognised human rights standards therefore require the government policy and decision-makers to factor into that process certain key universal principles. This imposes a level of discipline and rigour upon government agencies, which if they ignore, or if they misapply those human rights standards, ought to be held accountable before an independent and impartial court. 34 35 Article 1 UDHR; preamble to UN Charter. See section V.D. below. 25

Select target paragraph3

Connect to a paragraph
Connect to an entity
Disable highlights
Add to table of contents